Elements!

Just for my own satisfaction (sanity?), a reckoning of the elements in place or about to be in place here at Robin Hill Gardens:

  1. Veg gardens, all grown from seed (reasonable harvests, gardener needs more experience)
  2. Hoop house (12’x20′)
  3. Solar PV array (5.1 Kw – supplies 100% of electricity)
  4. Medicinal herb garden (minimal, needs more attention)
  5. Cherry tree, nut and berry bushes, 2 kiwis (none of them producing as yet)
  6. Apiary (3 hives) - coming up: 150 lbs (?) of honey
  7. Avian dinosaurs (4 pullets) - coming up: eggs!
  8. Rainwater catchment (5×60 gallons) - coming up: two 275 gallon toters
  9. Compost (3 bins 4x4x4 and 2 Earth Machines and sundry leaf and wood chip piles)
  10. Garlic house for curing garlic (Amie’s play set house: works great!)
  11. Solar clothes dryer
  12. Member of a CSA (carpooled too)
  13. Reasonable number in the 90% Reduction/Riot for Austerity
  14. Firewood – wood grown on property – for three winters
  15. coming up: homemade honey extractor
  16. coming up: homemade solar oven / beeswax melter
  17. wishing for: solar hot water (involves thermal collector and new water tank, possibly electrical on demand)
  18. wishing for: high efficiency replacement for one car
  19. wishing for: trailer for other car (“work horse”)
  20. wishing for: more fruit trees
And, in the immediate vicinity:
  1. Transition Wayland
  2. Solarize Wayland
  3. BEElieve Beekeepers Club
  4. Wayland Green Team
  5. and other friends working on our town’s resilience

There, I feel better.

 

Blow Your Mind on a Muffin

Browsing through old photos I found this one, from December last year. We got the muffin on the plane to Belgium.

Notice how only the wholesome ingredients are circled and then the word “natural”. It was supposed to be a muffin,  though by my definition it was a pharmaceutical factory, or any number of other things that I wouldn’t even waste breath on. Not “Mmm…” And not “food,” which is what I categorized this under.

Riot for Austerity – June 2012 – Month 44


Here it is, the Riot for the month of June of 2012 for the three of us. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers!

Gasoline.  Calculated per person.

16.35 gallons per person

39.8 % of the US National Average

Electricity. This is reckoned per household, not per person. We cook on an electric stove. According to our solar meter, we produced 4437 kWh since the system was turned on, and 581 kWh this last month (you can follow our solar harvest live here). And most heavy electrical  equipment has been turned off: the growing lights and heat mat and the heat lamps for our chicks. Result: we owed NStar nothing. How much we consumed is a mystery: our NSTAR bill will not say. All we know is that we produced 581 kWh and they rebated us (yes, paid us) $26, but who knows at what rate! I’m going to guess here:

380 KwH

21% of the US National Average

Heating Oil and Warm Water. This too is calculated for the entire household, not per person.

6.5  gallons of oil

10.5% of the US National Average

Trash. After recycling and composting this usually comes down to mainly food wrappers.

6 lbs. pp per month

4.4% of the US National Average

Water. This is calculated per person.

436 gallons pp.

14.5 % of the US National Average

Honey!

Yesterday I put the newly made honey supers (painted blue) onto the hives. Right on time for the one in the middle (H3): the honey super already on it (third box) was filled, frame to frame, inch for inch. Some of the outer frames just needed capping, so I left it for a couple more days. Then I’ll finally have honey, 60 pounds of it!

Solar Surplus Countdown!

We figured we need to overproduce (produce more than we consume) about 100 solar KwH by August 13th, which will be a year from when our solar system was connected to the grid and we started producing. If we make it, we’ll have broken even. It will be a challenge, since as of next week our household will double in size. There will be six of us: DH’s parents and sister will be with us for the summer. But they’appreciate the challenge, I’m sure.

I’m working on a plug-in for the blog that will track the race.

Speaking of Solar Surplus and Countdown…

Here in Wayland we are running the Solarize Massachusetts program. This is a state-sponsored program developed by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MA CEC) and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (MA DOER) to encourage residential solar photovoltaic electricity (PV) installations.  It provides a framework for municipalities, homeowners and solar installers to work collaboratively to maximize cost-savings and energy efficiency benefits. It

  • Was only available to designated Green Communities (31 of 86 towns applied)
  • Was piloted in four communities in 2010, and is now extended to 17 towns
  • Provides marketing, outreach, procurement, and contracting support
  • Creates a group purchasing opportunity.  The price drops as more people sign up.
  • Ends on Sept 30. 2012

Wayland teamed up with neighboring towns Lincoln and Sudbury, adding up to about 13000 households. Each town assigned a solar coach (I’m the coach for Wayland) to lead the grassroots outreach. The MassCEC put out the Request for Proposals to solar installers and vetted the bids, then sent them our way. Together with specialists in the field, we chose an installer for the program.

What an opportunity! When I signed on for this, I knew this would be well worth my time. And I was appreciative of the MassCEC for engaging the grassroots in this. Just them, just a solar installer, or a combination of those two, would never have the impact of the grassroots that are already in place.

Putting systems in place for (and before) when they’re needed is one of the goals of Transition work. Cleanly, distributively and locally produced energy is one of those systems. The goal is to enrich Wayland with 100 solar arrays, 100 households that feel the empowerment of being of  producers instead of consumers, 100 households that will model a different energy culture.

Beyond that we are also looking into a Solar Community Garden, for those in our towns whose sites are not conducive for solar due to shading, orientation and other issues. The community building potential of this one is immense.

And beyond that, imagine a local mini-grid… We are laying some of the foundations here for one more element in our town’s resilience.

In the first year of its existence, Transition Wayland has primarily been doing a lot of little things: conversations, small manifestations, some skill building, lots of talking, getting to know our people. Lately we’ve stepped it up, with Earth Day (which attracted 400 visitors), and now with the Solarize program. It feels good to have a larger impact, to make a big change. Big changes in small places, they’ll add up.

 

Building Your Own Hives or Buying a Kit?

Today we built the last five hive bodies: five medium supers (cf. building the hive boxes and building the frames). I just need to assemble the frames and they’ll go onto the hives and collect honey. Finally, after two dry years, I will have honey, because the bee season and the honey flow so far have been amazing. So, time to see if the decision to build the boxes and to assemble the frames ourselves was a good one. Of course I made the calculation before, but there are always surprises to be reckoned in afterward.

Each of my two hives has:

  1. screened bottom board: I had these lying around ($0)
  2. two deeps, built from two 1×12-8 common pine boards ($30)
  3. 20 wooden frames, bought from  my local bee supplier, unassembled ($22)
  4. 20 sheets with Duragilt foundation brought from my local bee supplier  ($28)
  5. two medium supers, built from two 1×8-8 common pine boards ($20)
  6. 20 wooden frames, bought unassembled from my local bee supplier  ($22)
  7. 20 Plasticell (plastic and beeswax coating) foundation – unavailable from  my local bee supplier so got it online, so add shipping ($28)
  8. one  inner cover: bought this from my local bee supplier ($12)
  9. one telescoping outer cover: bought this from my local bee supplier ($25)
  10. 2 boxes of 6d 2″ nails ($9)
  11. gallon of exterior paint (not counting this because the kit I am comparing this to come unpainted)
> That makes for $196 total

A similar kit from the local bee supplier (Dadant’s kits, for instance, would be cheaper, but the shipping kills the deal) costs $280.

In the end we saved more than $84 * 2, because we put together some extra boxes and frames, and the bulk-buy of planks, frames and foundation cut the price even more.

Of course this doesn’t reckon the hours DH and I put in, together figuring out box joints and having fun hammering away, but those are priceless anyway. As for the cost of electricity to run the saws and of gasoline to drive to the shops to buy the planks, etc, I doubt they amount to $84. On the whole , I reckon this was a successful venture. I’m happy they’re done, though, and hope they will last many, many years.

One Element at a Time

Two elements in this image, actually. One of which we set in motion a couple of months ago, and one that I just strung.

We had a clothesline until two winters ago, but the trees it was under leafed out so much it stopped being a very good spot: too much shade, too much stuff dirtying the laundry. This is one of those retractable clotheslines, attached to our shed (which still needs its barn doors – why is that when I look at a picture all I see is “things to do”?). Amie and I got all the laundry from one large wash hung up. Amie loves hanging clothes.

Still, I need to rethink it a little. There’s enough line in the roller to add a stretch, but the locking mechanism isn’t very food so the line sags quite a bit. But I want it to be retractable because this side of our yard – the “utilitarian area” with the firewood (off to the right) – gets quite a big of traffic.

In the background you can spot the other element. Our four chicks are two months old now.  Hopefully we’ll have eggs come September. Their coop needs a nest box, siding and paint.

Those green tendrils on the trellis? Hardy kiwi. The two plants are going absolutely wild.